On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 00:27:38 -0400, "Kevin Brooks"
wrote:


"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
...
The US had more than a thousand F-4s, along with scads more
A-4, F-101s and so on. Obviously some went to museums. But
where are the rest? And if they are sitting in a desert somewhere,
what's their condition.

The F-101's were scrapped or sent to museums long ago. Some of the A-4's
recently (within the last three or four years) were sold off to the
Brazilians, IIRC, after some rebuild and modification work. I'd guess a fair
number of F-4's are still at AMARC, but a fair number have ended up as
QF-4's, getting shot at by various fighters and air defense systems. As did
a fair number of the F-102's before them (and some F-106's IIRC?).

The drone program was remarkable to watch while I was at Holloman.
During the four years I was doing Fighter Lead-In, I watched the
F-102, the F-100, the F-106 and the beginnings of the F-4 programs.
(My favorite was the F-100 which came with the call-sign
"Attila"....think about it.) They even had a few F-86s when I started.

The aircraft in Q configuration could be flown by a pilot on board,
remotely with a pilot on board safety observer, and full remote
(obviously the favored approach for target duty!) They were operated
remotely from a ground station as well as from a chase aircraft. The
ground operator was used for T/O and recovery and was in a mobile
console, mounted on a truck chassis and positioned on the centerline
of the runway to aid in approach and departure lineup.

When flown remotely, they aircraft had an emergency destruct package
which necessitated some minimum safe runway clearance procedures. If
there were any possibilty of damage to a Q on a target mission the
drone would be destroyed over the range, rather than attempting
recovery. Saw lots of old bits and pieces out on the White Sands
Missile Range around Mockingbird Gap when I used to go quail hunting
out there.

Got lots of chance to watch the operations from the tower or the
Supervisor of Flying truck.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8